Raccoon Crack

This is today's second post and is an attempt to get back on schedule. July came up one post short so August will need 32 instead of 31. We went to the Oneida Sweet Corn Festival yesterday and it was my good fortune to get an opportunity to visit with Sally. We worked together for years at the prison and Sally was an excellent counselor. She was flexible when the rules required and unyielding when the situation demanded. She knew the fundamental rules of working in a prison. The first rule is that if no one escaped and no staff got injured we had a good day. The second rule was if an inmate was supposed to get something according to the rules then it was our job to see that happened. If an inmate wasn't supposed to get something it was our job to say no. Sally knew how to do all those things with a great attitude. While we were talking yesterday she mentioned my blog on the raccoon capture and referred to marshmallows as coon crack. I don't know why but they just cannot resist those sugary treats. The trap was out again last night and we caught another juvenile raccoon. He got to eat the 8 marshmallows in the trap and got a ride to his new home area. Here are a few pictures of the process.

 Here he is in the cage in the back of the car ready for his relocation ride.

 It took a few attempts but I finally got him to look at the camera.

Here he is just diving into the corn field about 5 miles from our house.

A few things to note. He was creating a ruckus in the trap and woke up Lily so he had to be relocated in the trap to the yard at 4 am. While he was on the deck he took a shit and spread it over about a square yard area so I had to clean the deck this morning. Apparently I didn't get it clean enough for Teddi. She went out on the deck this morning and shit where the raccoon had last night. Teddi is treading on thin ice at the moment. She and Lily got into a fight yesterday afternoon and Lily's ear got a pretty good bite. She bled quite a bit and every time I thought I had it stopped she would shake her head and it would start again. The good news is today it looks much better.

When Sally and I were talking yesterday she mentioned having pet raccoons once when the mother was killed. She said they were curious and wonderful but also very destructive. It got me thinking about how men and raccoons are similar. Not mankind but specifically the male human. Women might do something like invent a taser for personal protection. Men are the ones who will have a buddy put it to their skin to see what it does. Men shoot things, or blow stuff up just to see what happens. We see wet paint signs and touch the wall to see if the sign is true. If the speedometer says a car will go 130 mph we want to see if there is truth behind the claim. We don't have anywhere we have to be in a hurry we just wondered. When you look at stupid things being done on internet videos it is almost always men who are doing them. If you wonder if this applies to your blog author all I can offer is that I like marshmallows.